Czech nuclear regulator warns of European pressure to close reactors early

The head of the Czech nuclear watchdog has warned of pressure to close the
country’s oldest nuclear reactors early. That would effectively blow a
massive hole in the country’s energy strategy and timeframe for getting
new replacement reactors built in time.

Dana Drábová, photo: Jana Trpišovská
The head of the State Office for Nuclear Safety, Dana Drábová, gave this
rather blunt warning at a Prague energy conference this week attended by
most of the country’s top energy executives and the Minister for Industry
and Trade:

ʺThere is immense pressure developing that the operating life of nuclear
reactors will be limited to 40 years. That means that our political
representatives – whoever they might be - sometime around 2023 will face
a battle over a further 10 year extension for Dukovany. The current State
Energy Framework counts on the lifetime of the Dukovany reactors ending
sometime between 2030 and 2040.ʺ

While Drábová did not immediately explain where the pressure is coming
from she later elaborated on her fears when interviewed on Czech Radio:

ʺThere are member states which are showing a desire to go down this road.
These are of course the 14 countries which are not using nuclear power and
some of which regard it as something ugly. In this case we might see,
let’s say, a willingness to get rid of these nuclear plants in Europe as
fast as possible.ʺ

The head of the Czech nuclear watchdog said there have already been
examples in Europe where nuclear reactors have been forced to close because
of what were basically political reasons. She gave the example of two
reactors at Slovakia’s Jaslovské Bohunice plant which were forced to
close as a condition for the country joining the European Union.

The Czech government and the state-dominated power company and nuclear
operator ČEZ are counting on the four Dukovany reactors - which began
operation from 1985 to 1987 – operating for at least 50 years and being
phased out from around 2035.

This, it’s argued, would safeguard Czech nuclear know-how in the area and
cover some of the shortfall in electricity production resulting from the
closure of the Soviet-era designed reactors. With the timeline for getting
even one new reactor built and running by 2035 already regarded as
extremely tight, the possibility of bringing that target forward by around
1o years would be impossible.

Drábová also pointed out another problem: without new nuclear reactors
and some of the older ones operating, Czech plans to curb greenhouse gas
emissions in line with European Union climate change plans will also be
blown apart. Czechs are counting on nuclear power plants in the long term
providing around half of the country’s electricity, up from around a
third now, as many of the country’s older coal-fired plants are also
phased out.